Interactive effects of mulching practice and nitrogen rate on grain yield, water productivity, fertilizer use efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions of rainfed summer maize in northwest China
Introduction
Rainfed agriculture accounts for more than 70% of the total arable land in north and northwest China, mainly located in the arid and semi-arid regions (Li et al., 2014). Drought and nutrient deficiency are the major factors limiting maize (Zea mays L.) production in these regions (Hu et al., 2019, Xu et al., 2020). Scarce and variable annual precipitation (200–600 mm) is the only water input for rainfed agriculture, about 60% of which occurs between July and September (Chen et al., 2020, Fan et al., 2021, Zheng et al., 2019). In the context of water shortage, straw mulching (SM) and ridge-furrow cultivation with plastic film mulching on the ridge (RF) have been widely adopted to improve water productivity and maize yield by reducing soil evaporation, conserving soil water and regulating soil temperature, organic matter and structure (Li et al., 2013, Chen et al., 2017, Zhang et al., 2017a, Hu et al., 2019, Maneepitak et al., 2019, Wang et al., 2019, Zhang et al., 2021, Zheng et al., 2020, Zheng et al., 2021). Nitrogen (N) amendment is an effective way for promoting maize growth and ultimately enhancing grain yield (Wang et al., 2020). However, the N input for rainfed maize in northwest China averagely amounts to ~300 kg N ha−1, which is much higher than the nitrogen requirement for summer maize (Chang et al., 2014). Although the high N input may guarantee high maize yield, it significantly decreases the nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) and contributes to high soil N residual. The NUE for the wheat-maize cropping system in China was only 16%−18% due to the excessive use of mineral N from 1987 to 2015 (Liang et al., 2018).
Scientists have recently paid more attention to environmental issues worldwide. Ammonia (NH3) is a major environmental pollutant and a critical precursor for PM2.5 (Dan et al., 2004, Sun et al., 2018). Its atmospheric deposition to the land surface also contributes to soil acidification, eutrophication and loss of biodiversity (Asman et al., 1998, Hellsten et al., 2008). Agricultural fertilizers are the world’s biggest sources of NH3, contributing 41.9% to the total emission (Xu et al., 2015, Pan et al., 2016). Global warming due to increasing atmospheric greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is also a severe environmental issue. Nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) are the major GHG and have rapidly increased, especially since the mid-20th century. Agriculture is the second greatest GHG emission source after fossil fuels. Anthropogenic CO2 emission dominated by agriculture totaled 5575 Mt and increased to 5800 Mt by 2014 (FAO, 2015). Global warming potentials (GWP) of N2O and CH4 are 298 and 28 times greater than that of CO2, and agriculture soil has been estimated to contribute 84% and 52% to the global anthropogenic N2O and CH4 emissions, respectively (IPCC, 2014).
The changing soil water and temperature conditions as a result of soil mulching can influence NH3 and GHG emissions. However, it is not clear yet that how straw and plastic film mulching affect NH3 volatilization despite several studies on NH3 volatilization in northwest China or other regions with similar climates (Cai et al., 2002, Zhang et al., 2004, Wang et al., 2011, Zhang et al., 2011, Zhang et al., 2015, Li et al., 2017, Li et al., 2019a). Inconsistent results of straw and plastic mulching on GHG emissions have been observed, even in the same field during various seasons (Chen et al., 2017, Zhou et al., 2017). CO2 and CH4 emissions under straw mulching are mostly increase due to the readily available C from straw decomposition, but Chen et al. (2017) found that straw mulching increased the soil’s ability to absorb CH4. It has been reported that RF increased NO2 and CO2 emissions because the increased soil temperature and moisture stimulated nitrifier and/or denitrifier activities (Wrage et al., 2001) and promoted soil mineralization (Li et al., 2004). However, NO2 and CO2 emissions have also been decreased largely due to the decreased soil mineral N or the barrier effect of plastic film on the ridge (Gan et al., 2013, Liu et al., 2014). Improving our knowledge of soil mulching effects on maize growth and environmental effects is still highly required for rainfed agriculture.
Nitrogen application can lead to NH3 air pollution and GHG emissions from mineral N fertilizers. Previous studies showed that applied N was lost by NH3 volatilization under decreased soil pH conditions due to hydrolysis of granule urea into NH4+, OH− and CO32− after N application (Hayashi et al., 2008, Tian et al., 2017). N2O can be generated from the nitrification and denitrification processes, which are mainly controlled by the soil available substrate (NO3−, NH4+) (Migliorati et al., 2014, Wang et al., 2016, Zhong et al., 2016). Urea is converted into NH4+, OH− and HCO3− in the presence of water and urease enzymes, and HCO3− then evolves into CO2 and water. Therefore, higher NH3, N2O and CO2 are usually emitted from the soil with the increasing nitrogen input (Snyder et al., 2009). However, both increase and decrease of soil oxidation capacity for CH4 emission have been observed with the increased NH4+ contents from fertilizers (Van den Pol-van Dasselaar et al., 1999, Bodelier and Laanbroek, 2004). An optimal N rate is thus critical not only for sustaining maize yield but also for ensuring good environment.
Soil mulching and nitrogen application have long been used for improving crop productivity in rainfed agriculture, but there remain large uncertainties regarding their comprehensive impacts on environments, such as NH3 volatilization and greenhouse gas emissions. What’s more important, the interacting effects of mulching practice and nitrogen rate on maize yield and greenhouse gas emissions have not been explored yet. Therefore, the objective of this study was to explore the responses of maize yield, water productivity (WP), N utilization efficiency (NUE), economic benefit, NH3 ventilation and GHG emissions to various soil mulching practices, N application rates and their interactions. The hypotheses were that: (1) plastic film mulching produces the highest maize yield, WP, NUE and economic benefit but also the greatest GHG emissions; (2) straw mulching obtains comparable maize yield, WP, NUE and economic benefit to plastic film mulching, but it produces low GHG emissions; and (3) the combination of straw mulching and a medium nitrogen rate of 200 N kg ha−1 better balances the agronomic, economic and environmental benefits of rainfed maize.
Section snippets
Site description
The experiments were conducted in rainfed maize fields at the Key Laboratory of Agricultural Soil and Water Engineering in Arid and Semiarid Area of the Ministry of Education (34°18′N, 108°24′E, 512 m), Northwest A&F University, Yangling, China during two growing seasons of summer maize in 2018 and 2019. This site has a sub-humid and drought-prone monsoon climate. The mean annual precipitation is 570 mm from 1995 to 2017, with 63% of precipitation falling from June to September. The annual mean
Soil temperature, WFPS and mineral N dynamics
Soil temperatures at 10 cm depth were similar to daily air temperature in various treatments (Fig. 1; Fig. 3A). Mean soil temperatures were similar at N1, N2 and N3 over the two growing seasons, with values of 27.31, 27.27 and 27.23 ℃, respectively. Soil temperatures were greatly influenced by mulching practices. Compared with NM, soil temperatures were reduced on average by 0.51 ℃ under SM and increased by 3.25 ℃ on the ridge of RF. WFPS at 20 cm depth increased following rainfall events and
Effects of mulching practice and nitrogen rate on maize yield, economic benefit, WP and NUE
The grain yield, WP and NUE of rainfed summer maize were significantly affected by mulching practice and nitrogen rate, but not their interactions. Maize yield was increased by 7.9% under SM and by 12.4% under RF relative to NM. WP under SM and under RF was 10.3% and 13.5% higher than that of NM. These were lower than the finding of Gao et al. (2019), who concluded that straw and plastic mulching increased maize yield by 12.0% and 29.2%, WP by 11.4% and 29.5% compared to non-mulching based on
Conclusions
The response of maize yield, economic benefit, WP, NUE, NH3 and GHG emissions to various mulching practices, N application rates and their interactions were explored in this study. Both straw and plastic film mulching were favorable to maize growth, water productivity, plant N utilization and economic benefit, but RF produced much higher GWP and GHGI A medium N application rate of 200 kg N ha−1 resulted in relatively low SNR, NH3, GWP, GHGI but relatively high grain yield, WP, NUE and net
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This study was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51879226), the Youth Talent Cultivation Program of Northwest A&F University (No. 2452020010) and the 111 Project (B12007). This work was also financially supported by the China Scholarship Council (No. 201906300054) and was also logistically supported by Purdue University.
References (89)
- et al.
Biochar induced soil microbial community change: implications for biogeochemical cycling of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus
Pedobiologia
(2011) - et al.
Nitrogen as a regulatory factor of methane oxidation in soils and sediments
FEMS Microbiol. Ecol.
(2004) - et al.
Greenhouse gas emissions, soil carbon sequestration and crop yield in a rain-fed field with crop rotation management
Agric. Ecosyst. Environ.
(2017) - et al.
Effects of straw and plastic film mulching on greenhouse gas emissions in Loess Plateau, China: a field study of 2 consecutive wheat-maize rotation cycles
Sci. Total Environ.
(2017) - et al.
Modeling impacts of mulching and climate change on crop production and N2O emission in the Loess Plateau of China
Agric. For. Meteorol.
(2019) - et al.
The characteristics of carbonaceous species and their sources in PM2.5 in Beijing
Atmos. Environ.
(2004) - et al.
Dynamic responses of ammonia volatilization to different rates of fresh and field-aged biochar in a rice-wheat rotation system
Field Crops Res.
(2019) - et al.
Estimation of daily maizetranspiration using support vector machines, extreme gradient boosting,artificial and deep neural networks models
Agric. Water Manag.
(2021) - et al.
Ridge-furrow mulching systems-an innovative technique for boosting crop productivity in semiarid rain-fed environments
Adv. Agron.
(2013) - et al.
Nitrous oxide and methane emissions from optimized and alternative cereal cropping systems on the North China Plain: a two-year field study
Sci. Total Environ.
(2014)
Exploring optimal soil mulching to enhance yield and water use efficiency in maize cropping in China
Agric. Water Manag.
Nitrogen use by winter wheat and changes in soil nitrate nitrogen levels with supplemental irrigation based on measurement of moisture content in various soil layers
Field Crops Res.
Ammonia volatilization from a paddy field following applications of urea: rice plants are both an absorber and an emitter for atmospheric ammonia
Sci. Total Environ.
Modelling the spatial distribution of ammonia emissions in the UK
Environ. Pollut.
Exploring optimal soil mulching for the wheat-maize cropping system in sub-humid drought-prone regions in China
Agric. Water Manag.
Effect of irrigation and nitrogen on water use efficiency of wheat in Saudi Arabia
Agric. Water Manag.
Lowering nitrogen inputs and optimizing fertilizer types can reduce direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions from rice-wheat rotation systems
Eur. J. Soil Biol.
Determining optimum nitrogen input rate and optimum yield-scaled nitrous oxide emissions: theory, field observations, usage, and limitation
Agric. Ecosyst. Environ.
Effects of fertilizer and irrigation management on nitrous oxide emission from cotton fields in an extremely arid region of northwestern China
Field Crops Res.
Impact of irrigation and fertilization regimes on greenhouse gas emissions from soil of mulching cultivated maize (Zea mays L.) field in the upper reaches of Yellow River, China
J. Clean. Prod.
Dynamics of soil microbial biomass C and soil fertility in cropland mulched with plastic film in a semiarid agroecosystem
Soil Biol. Biochem.
Effects on soil temperature, moisture, and maize yield of cultivation with ridge and furrow mulching in the rainfed area of the Loess Plateau, China
Agric. Water Manag.
Modeling ammonia volatilization following the application of synthetic fertilizers to cultivated uplands with calcareous soils using an improved DNDC biogeochemistry model
Sci. Total Environ.
Effects of ridge–furrow mulching on soil CO2 efflux in a maize field in the Chinese Loess Plateau
Agric. For. Meteorol.
Carbon dioxide fluxes and concentrations in a cotton field in northwestern China: effects of plastic mulching and drip irrigation
Pedosphere
Fertilizer management practices and greenhouse gas emissions from rice systems: a quantitative review and analysis
Field Crops Res.
Response of nitrous oxide emission to soil mulching and nitrogen fertilization in semi-arid farmland
Agric. Ecosyst. Environ.
Effects of tillage, mulching and N management on yield, water productivity, N uptake and residual soil nitrate in a long-term wheat-summer maize cropping system
Field Crops Res.
Effects of water and rice straw management practices on water savings and greenhouse gas emissions from a double-rice paddy field in the Central Plain of Thailand
Eur. J. Agron.
Nitrogen fertilization of switchgrass increases biomass yield and improves net greenhouse gas balance in northern Michigan, USA
Biomass Bioenergy
Ammonia volatilization from synthetic fertilizers and its mitigation strategies: a global synthesis
Agric. Ecosyst. Environ.
Behavior of microplastics and plastic film residues in the soil environment: a critical review
Sci. Total Environ.
Maize yield, rainwater and nitrogen use efficiency as affected by maize genotypes and nitrogen rates on the Loess Plateau of China
Agric. Water Manag.
Review of greenhouse gas emissions from crop production systems and fertilizer management effects
Agric. Ecosyst. Environ.
Plastic mulching in agriculture. Trading short-term agronomic benefits for long-term soil degradation?
Sci. Total Environ.
Ammonia volatilization and atmospheric N deposition following straw and urea application from a rice-wheat rotation in southeastern China
Atmos. Environ.
Mitigated CH4 and N2O emissions and improved irrigation water use efficiency in winter wheat field with surface drip irrigation in the North China Plain
Agric. Water Manag.
Straw enhanced CO2 and CH4 but decreased N2O emissions from flooded paddy soils: changes in microbial community compositions
Atmos. Environ.
The effects of mulch and nitrogen fertilizer on the soil environment of crop plants
Adv. Agron.
Role of nitrifier denitrification in the production of nitrous oxide
Soil Biol. Biochem.
Exploring optimal irrigation and nitrogen fertilization in a winter wheat-summer maize rotation system for improving crop yield and reducing water and nitrogen leaching
Agric. Water Manag.
Long-term effects of tillage and straw management on soil organic carbon, crop yield, and yield stability in a wheat-maize system
Field Crops Res.
An inventory of the emission of ammonia from agricultural fertilizer application in China for 2010 and its high-resolution spatial distribution
Atmos. Environ.
A 3-year record of N2O and CH4 emissions from a sandy loam paddy during rice seasons as affected by different nitrogen N rates
Agric. Ecosyst. Environ.
Cited by (69)
Minimizing environment footprint through half-plastic film mulch and straw incorporation in maize-based system
2024, Agriculture, Ecosystems and EnvironmentAssessing uncertainties and discrepancies in agricultural greenhouse gas emissions estimation in China: A comprehensive review
2024, Environmental Impact Assessment ReviewDoes no-till crop management mitigate gaseous emissions and reduce yield disparities: An empirical US-China evaluation
2024, Science of the Total EnvironmentEffect of irrigation on farm efficiency in tribal villages of Eastern India
2024, Agricultural Water Management